Google-backed Open Cloud Coalition launches to lobby European lawmakers
The new Google-backed Open Cloud Coalition launches to lobby European lawmakers -- mostly against Microsoft.
Europe has a new lobbying body, one with a self-stated mission to “improve competition, transparency and resilience” in the cloud computing sector.
The Open Cloud Coalition (OCC) counts 10 members at launch, the most notable of which is Google, supported by international and local cloud providers Centerprise International, Civo, Gigas, ControlPlane, DTP Group, Prolinx, Pulsant, Clairo and Room 101. Part of the collective’s work will involve conducting cloud market research and presenting the results to regulators in the European Union and the U.K., while “engaging in consultations on competition and market fairness,” according to a statement.
The launch comes hours after Microsoft’s deputy general counsel Rima Alaily preempted the announcement, publishing a blog post accusing Google of conducting a “shadow campaign” to influence cloud regulation in Europe. Alaily called the new organization an “astroturf group organized by Google,” adding that the search giant had “gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding and control” by using smaller European cloud providers as the face of the coalition.
The OCC is broadly comparable to another industry trade organization called the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), which launched in 2017 and has Amazon’s AWS as its flagship member alongside several dozen smaller players. Indeed, the OCC is a direct response to a settlement Microsoft reached with CISPE members (not including AWS) to abandon an antitrust complaint against a licensing change Microsoft had made in 2019, which made it more expensive to run its enterprise software on rival cloud services.
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